Monday, April 4, 2011

Starlight, glowing gas, and interstellar dust in perfect NGC 1300

Starlight, glowing gas, and interstellar dust in perfect NGC 1300
Click on the image for full resolution (7.0 MB)

This is one of the largest Hubble Space Telescope images ever made of a complete galaxy.
The Hubble telescope captured a display of starlight, glowing gas, and silhouetted dark clouds of interstellar dust in this large image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300. NGC 1300 is considered to be prototypical of barred spiral galaxies. Barred spirals differ from normal spiral galaxies in that the arms of the galaxy do not spiral all the way into the center, but are connected to the two ends of a straight bar of stars containing the nucleus at its center.
The full resolution image weighs 7.0 MB, so please be patient when downloading!
Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

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